There are about 25 million Aussies and Kiwis on the globe and I swear a good number of them are in Canada. Mike the German and I drove our rental Chevy through Ohio, Pennsylvannia and New York state, to Ontario where we stayed in the Canadiana Backpackers Inn - voted Best Hostel in North America in 2003 and possibly one of my choicest. The inn attracted a motley crew. Mike and I spent the majority of our time with our roomate Matt, the No. 1 ranked Rock-Paper-Scissors player in New Zealand who was in town for the world championships. What a top bloke!
I met a young Finnish girl who rode her bicycle up from Detroit. On the Wednesday, I said goodbye as she headed off for Argentina.... also on her bike!!! I didn't want to make a big deal of it but did ask of her thoughts regarding her safety while peddling through Columbia. She explained to me that she was sure she was going to die! That's a little bit sad. I know her blog address so I will watch out for her.
We stayed a night with Rick and Nicole Hill who live in the little town of Elora, about an hours drive from Toronto. Rick is quite the expat with Coopers and Barbeque Shapes awaiting our arrival. Yet despite all the Australiana around their newly-owned home, one could say he has immersed himself in Canadian culture with his competing in curling each Friday night!
The weather was beautiful in Toronto, daily averages of about 10 degrees and clear skies. We made good use of the weather by taking a ride to the top of CN Tower - the tallest free standing structure in the world. The pic at the top is of me hanging out the front of the backpackers inn with the tower in the background.
Unfortunately, the photo above is one of few from the trip as I was without my camera due to a mishap at Niagara Falls.
Karaoke is not something I've ever lent my hand too, until now. A few hours at a Tequila Bar saw me belting out a number of tunes. I paired with a Canadian lass, Sarah, to perform Summer Nights. And I can tell you, I was bloody fantastic. However, the same can't be said for all my numbers; Sarah thought that our duet for Summer Nights meant she was free to join me at the mic for all of my performances. She was sadly mistaken when I was forced to ask the DJ to remove her from the stage. Half the patrons in the bar left during my Pearl Jam number, but think I regained some sort of credibility finishing the evening with Easy.
The greatest thing about Canada may be the no smoking law in all public buildings. How much more enjoyable it is to walk out of a bar without smelling like an ash tray. America is not far from adopting these new laws as is Australia. Yeah! (Our Commonwealth friends must also be commended for their recycling. Even street trash is divided).
In less than one month I will be crosiing their border again!
Here's a funny little story about Michael which I videod at our Hotel in Cleveland.
Mike the German and I raced back to US soil Friday night in hope of catching the broadcast of Butler competing in the NIT Championship game at Madison Square Garden. (The reason we needed to be in the US is becasue Canada does not have ESPN2). We had planned to make it to our hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan in time for the 7 o'clock tip-off, but our plans were thwarted due to slow traffic coming out of Toronto, as well as a back up of cars at border control. So we had no choice but to head downtown Detroit in hope of finding a bar. We did find a really cool place where I think we were lucky to get one of the screens to show the game as there were NBA and Hockey games being played in Detroit that same evening.
We caught the last 10 minutes of the game in which Butler won. We couldn't believe it. The following day the team travelled home (as did Mike and I) for yet another tough match. And what a diference a few wins make with Hinkle Fieldhouse being a lot busier than usual. And the Dawgs win yet again... in a double-overtime thriller.
Would you believe? Little Butler University is now ranked within the top 25 college teams in the entire country. Wow!
You could say the Butler Bulldogs have had some luck of late. They were invited to play a pre-season tournament where they started beating important teams (like Notre Dame). Then they went up against one of the most celebrated collegiate teams in the country, the Indiana Hoosiers, and beat them! So then they head off to Madison Square Garden to compete and, cut a long story short, Friday they play one of the best teams in the country for the championship. They must be going crazy in NY and back at Butler. Michael and I will be back in the US by Friday to watch the championship game from MSG on ESPN. This is quite bizzare.
I made comment in my last post about the band Hinder whom I met at work but didn't know anything about. Having listened to a lot of North American radio over the last couple of days while travelling around, I hear that their single, Lips of an Angel is getting some serious airtime. Infact, I think we have heard it several dozen times. Funny that I should also refer to Axl in the last post as we have tickets for GnR in LA. Rock on!
As a native to Indiana, Axl Rose got it right with the words NOVEMBER Rain. Its been drizzling here for friggin' 48 hours straight. Coupled with the fact that I travel by foot and bike, I am about to go nuts!!!
Inspired by GnR and the like, rock band, Hinder, had an in-studio interview at Emmis this week. (No, I hadn't heard of them either). While flipping through Rolling Stone later that same day, I found a feature article on them - so they must be doing something right. One of our DJs wanted to video it, so I helped her tape and cut it together. You can see it at http://www.radionow931.com/kisha/hinder.aspx but it probably only sits on there for week or so.
For those of you who love the good old days of rock, you may be interested to know that Axl Rose's 13-year-in-the-making, Chinese Democracy has been promised release by Christmas.
Ooooh, a new look at Smoov Goes to College... but not for much longer! Yes, I wanted something else so I could include the swell pic of Central Park which you can see above. Of course, when we are there in exactly four weeks this Friday past, it will not look like this as all those leaves will have shed. But that doesn't matter because the 850 acres of park sitting smack-bang in the centre of Manhattan island looks amazing any season of the year.
It seems studying media arts allows one a substantial amount of free time so I have been researching the park and its particular parts I want to visit. (Usually I only venture around its perimeter as I'm either too cold, too hot, or it's night and I'm too wise).
Along with my internet-based reaearch, I read The Catcher in the Rye again this week (I read it once upon a time when my uncle gave it to me for Xmas). In the second half of the novel Caulfield spends a lot of time in Central Park and while an exact date is not mentioned, apparently, actual history, geography and current science allude to it being December '49. While we will also be there in December, it is of even greater coincidence that we land in NYC the evening of December 8th - the date of Lennon's assissination. And these numerical correlations continue as it is the same date 26 years apart! It is also timely that I read the 26 chapters that make up Catcher cos in a few months Chapter 27 will be released. (I'm writing of Chapter 27 the film, not of some metaphor for our time in NY - only a psycho would do that!) Anyways, I think a pilgrimage to the Dakota Building on CPW at 10.50pm the night of our arrival would be appropriate.
And yes, how sad it is that it takes popular culture for me to have an active interest in famous literary works of the 20th century.
I was sick the other day. So sick that when I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to go to hospital, her reply was something along the lines of:
"Hey everyone. Check out this guy. He thinks he should go to hospital. Ha! Who do you think you are, wants-to-go-to-hospital?"
I explained that I have insurance but was told that just means 'you have insurance but you don't use the insurance'.
Yes, it makes little sense!
What makes more sense is that in the last 24 hours Democrats have swept Republicans from power in the House of Representatives, made huge gains in the Congress and moved to within one seat of victory in the Senate. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has resigned while Bush's approval is at an all-time low.
I took time out to make a video about the elections. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving is around the corner. We get the whole week off school, but the actual day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of each November. It may be quite likely that I will not be observing the holiday as I think I may go to Canada for the week.
My internship at Emmis is going well. I go there on Mondays and Fridays to shoot or edit video, or both, for web content. The last couple of weeks we have been producing packages about dining and shopping in Indianapolis. The dining one was cool because we went on a field trip to about five retauraunts around town and at each one would sample their food. The host of the show does not drink so he would take a dummy swig from the glass for the camera and then I would do the hard work off camera and finish his beers and wine.
There are about 25 million Aussies and Kiwis on the globe and I swear a good number of them are in Canada. Mike the German and I drove our rental Chevy through Ohio, Pennsylvannia and New York state, to Ontario where we stayed in the Canadiana Backpackers Inn - voted Best Hostel in North America in 2003 and possibly one of my choicest. The inn attracted a motley crew. Mike and I spent the majority of our time with our roomate Matt, the No. 1 ranked Rock-Paper-Scissors player in New Zealand who was in town for the world championships. What a top bloke!
